It is now 12 months since I came across Global Investments and I am so glad I did. I was introduced to Global Investments by my brother who actually at the time lived in Kentucky. Morris my brother, has been investing in the US housing market for over five years now so knows and has experienced everything first hand. Morris has always advised me to purchase in Atlanta as that is where the majority of his properties are located and to date everything has gone well for him. I liked Atlanta but did not feel the attraction came naturally, my husband and I always had a soft spot for Chicago and we both thought there could be huge opportunities available if we just had the right contact. After looking around online I came across Global Investments Incorporated, they were advertising properties in Chicago as well as other States and seemed to offer the full package. I called Morris who was still in the US at this time and he said he never heard of them but they are a registered US company and seems to have good ties in the industry. When my husband got in from work we decided to give them a call, I put them on speak phone so we could both absorb the conversation. We spoke with a gentleman called Scott Neve, who I have to say was very relaxed and was in no rush to make a sale, in fact he did not mention the sales process at all, he just spoke about the Chicago housing market and asked if we would like to see some brochures and to think about it for a while. That is exactly what we did, over the coming weeks we received brochures every week and we felt that the picture of Chicago was starting to build in our heads. We started to become realistic and realised that certain areas were way out of our budget and other areas you needed to be careful. After another call with Scott we came to the conclusion that maybe a foreclosed property would be the best option for us. With a foreclosed property you have the opportunity to get a real bargain but as Scott advised the paperwork and process can be long and cumbersome, plus there is a chance of a counter offer down the road. A this stage we were passed to a gentleman called John O’ Donoghue who would be my main point of contact through this supposedly long process. John was incredibly helpful and again reiterated what Scott said, we can put an offer in and play the game, if all goes well I would get my dream investment property. It took around another two weeks before we decided on the right house, the property John proposed was on the Westside of Chicago and only a twenty minute commute to Downtown. It was a four bedroom house with the option of two further bedrooms in the basement. The property was listed for $50,000 with the bank and John recommend we allow $10,000 for work, the amazing thing was this house was sold in 2005 for $215,000, my husband could not believe this and was dubious if we would get it. So we started our journey and started filling out the paperwork, there was a lot, our first offer was submitted and within a few days we were contacted to say we had to do it all over again. My fault the bank said my signature kept changing through the contract and they all must look the same, to this date I still do not have just the one signature. So our offer was submitted and we waited and waited, with was round five weeks before we heard anything back and what we heard was not what we wanted, they had counter at $60,000, $10,000 more than we originally wanted. One thing I love about Global Investments is their ease at handing out their mobile numbers, there are not many companies that so this. In fact I have John on my speed dial so I gave him a call straight away. John was great and he calmed me down straight away, he explained to me it can happened but lets stay strong and stick with our original offer, it was a risk as we could loose the house but he recommended it was the best course of action. The plan worked, just two days later our offer was accepted, we had done it, well John had really done it. Both my husband and myself were over the moon, we already had the survey carried out and we knew once the $10,000 was spent on the work we would have an incredible investment. After this stage things went very quickly, we completed on the house and were put in touch with a local building contractor who carried out the work. Again I was fascinated by how easily Global handed out contact details, not only were we in contact with John but the building contractor would email me regularly. Jay was his name and I have to say he did a fantastic job, not only was his work first class but he did it a great price and threw in extra jobs for free. I remember one day when the water was turned on we had a flood in the basement, Jay called me after the event to tell me that everything was sorted and the issue was resolved, he never charged for this which I think is exceptional. Once the house was made rental ready we were handed over to a great management company, John had explained that the management companies are very fussy but they do get good rents. They only liked to show houses that looked the part as they aimed towards professional couples working in Downtown. It only took a few weeks to get a tenant placed, as the management company predicted they were a professional couple who were both working full-time, the rent was $1,500 a month which we were more than happy with. As you can see everything worked out well but I really do not believe this would have not happened
